Violence at Texas' Doorstep

Last Edited: Friday, 24 Apr 2009, 3:40 PM CDT
Created On: Friday, 24 Apr 2009, 2:24 PM CDT

KRISTINE GALVAN

LA JOYA, Texas - For those who do not live in the Rio Grande valley, the river with the same name, is just a water barrier with Mexico; but for small town police officers like Joe Cantu of La Joya, Texas, the Rio Grande is also a last line of protection.

Beyond its banks, it is 'ground zero' for Mexico's violent drug wars. In the city of Reynosa, gunfire can and has erupted any time, any place, and those holding the guns do not seem to care who is around.

Bullets flew outside an elementary school in February as children cowered under tables. It is the kind of boldness that Texas officers say has already crept north of the river's banks. Cantu says Mexican drug runners have no problem shooting at American law enforcement officers patroling this side of the border, and border patrol agents have reported being shot at several times in recent years.

In fact, the agency no longer gives tours of the border region to reporters, where high speed vehicle chases happen almost daily. Those chases are often handled by the small town officers, like Cantu. He tells FOX 26 News that in one week, officers in his department have chased nine different smugglers, three of them at the exact same time, all of them carrying drugs or illegal immigrants.

FOX 26 has obtained dashboard camera video that captures smugglers ramming into a Penitas, Texas police car, outrunning the cops and driving a van loaded with drugs into the river. And the Mexican operations do not end there.

Some Texas landowners say they have seen Mexican soldiers on their land.

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